Gdaddy - good post well thought out and articulated, food for thought
Too bad there’s little accuracy in the term “hand shaper” when a planer is being used.
A case of semantics but nonetheless annoying to one who has studied the written word.
To the average person it is a mute point.
More rage against the machine here…
Handshaper, board builder, artist, craftsman - is it mute to the average person, or moot to those who study the written word? 
On the computer thing… It’s probably because I’m younger, but I’d say it would be sort of silly to not play with boardcard for outlines. I also don’t have a mass archive of templates that are probably older than I am, like some of you guys, or the experience that comes with that.
That being said, I don’t ever plan on selling boards. I’ve never done one for anybody other than myself. I’d probably never get a blank cnc’d, unless I built the cnc machine myself, of course. That would just be cool. But I like making things with my hands, so I’d prefer to mow the foam myself then pay some guy with a cnc to chop it up for me. That’s why I started making boards in the first place, there’s no sense in giving that up. The process is fun, the journey was the reward all along… That sort of thing. It’s nice to throw my board in the water for the first time, watch it not pull a titanic and know I made that start to finish.
So I’m not worried about the future, since I’m sure there will always be people willing to learn a craft rather then let a robot do it for them. And If I’m buying a board I’d pay somebody who values the process like I do.
For the truly custom shaper it will always come down to relationships
with customers who know the difference between custom made and factory built.
Those discerning customers will continue to value the shaper and keep their lights on.
For the rest, an industry of constant dwindling margins and endless quest to reduce costs,
As on the brink as a herd of wilderbeast heading for the drop off the cliff,
3D printing to soon obliterate those precious cost margins.
Surfers will then shop online, their latest shape intellectual property algorithms from the latest flavor of the month,
sending their purchased and perhaps mildly tweaked shape into que at the neighborthood 3d printer.
Pickup in 48 hours, perhaps a 2 piece, carefully slotted into the trunk of their 85 mpg 1.0 liter hyper turbo diesel,
next to their $1000 custom fitted 9th generation limestone neo wetsuit.
And guys like Barry will still be running their hands over fresh cut rail bands,
with a shit eating grin on their faces.
Because you can’t make or purchase soul,
even with a 3D printer…
**IF the power was cut off, who would be able??? **
Concise, pertinent, accurate.
Insatiable energy consumption …
If I had a CNC shaper in my back shed, no two ways about it I’d be using it.
Most reputable shapers still do custom orders. I think board models have served the surfing community in some real good aspects, as punters can read up on aspects of that model and decide if it is really for them. Obtaining consistency is a good thing.
So we really have the best of both worlds now. Electric planner shapers, yes they are going to find it harder and harder in the industry, but if your craftsmanship speaks for it’s self as a shaper you can carve yourself a niche in the boutique market with the right base of customers. Alternative designs and materials are really going to come into the for there.
There has always been discrepencies in what the customer thinks they want, the communication to shaper and what the shaper intends for them resulting in the synthesis of the finished shape. And, how stoked the customer is with the ride. Good shapers have good informative relationships based on reality with their customers, regradless of how they form their rough shapes.
I have begun ordering model boards over the last few years. I have always got custom shapes and will continue to do so for more specific boards for my requirements. And, I have begun to shape my own, largerly because I felt I could transpire my knowledge of what I wanted into a shape. I have a whole new learned respect for shapers. I will continue to support all these three methods of obtaining the right board for me in the future.
So using a power planer is to the righteous method to imbue a foam blank with soul?
Oi vey!
More holier than thou goobleygook!
Me.
Well I started this thread to envoke thought.
Just wanted to get people thinking.
Yes, if the power went out,
or the CNC machines no longer functioned,
No problema.
I could probably do this with my pocket knife.
This is a draw knife,
One of my most cherished tools.
Patent says 1885.
Sharp ass fuck.
And yes I have done a balsa board with it. A lot of work.
Does that qualify as hand-shaped?
Like I said at the beginning…
"The future of surfboards is not coming from the “Big surfboard manufactures”,
it will be from the true craftsmen in places like this." Barry Snyder
Tradition.
This is a word only cherished by craftsmen.
Not those in a hurry.
I have and still can make a board without electricity. Takes a while longer to sand it down, but the shaping part is not impacted too much. Blocks with very course grit and cheese graters will cut through foam very easily. I was working on a board once when the power went out. Didn’t even know it till my wife told me I had to go to work (I work for the local electric company). Block planers cut through wood so smoothly, that it’s kinda fun to do that. Sanding through fiberglass without a vac system sucks, but you just have to cover up real good.
I am by no way in the same league as those creating works of art. I make my own surfboards for my personal use and satisfaction. It helps me deal with lack of surf, or not being able to go surfing. I have a ton of respect to those who have reached the top, and make extremely beautiful, highly functional boards.
I think a good question would be, who can still make boards if there were no surfboard blanks available? If all you could get was block foam or lumber? I know there’s a bunch out there who can build a beautiful board from wood they harvest and mill themselves. Others have dabbled in the EPS/XPS block foam world. I’ve been making boards from block foam and sometimes wood. Cutting through a PU blank with a power planer is so much easier. If the blank industry and foam in general went away, only a very select few would still be making boards, probably a lot more agave boards would be seen.
**The old Hawaiians, shaped with fire, rocks and coral. **
**Hand shaped is just that, love Velzy’s tools especially the hatchet!**
I’m not anti-computer…I shape full size. By hand…backyard.
I bought some computer shaped seconds…nothing’s perfect !..well,somethings need to be perfect.
if your computer file is not perfect your machine will go crazy…and you will have a room full of blanks you cannot use. You don’t hear about the machine off cuts, the step child blanks, the missfits and money going into the trash…you only see what the media wants you to see…
People use the expression to denote the significance of a handmade object and its connection with the maker - i.e., a print or poster vs. an original work of art. A Van Gogh original by the hand of the artist is worth millions, you can get a machine made print or poster of the same image for few dollars. Ever wonder why?
Future generations will decide what, of our generation, is art, and you might be surprised. Google “tramp art” or “folk art”, to see a plethora of handmade items made for personal use and satisfaction, that are now valued as legitimate works or art.
http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/surfboards-art-hydrodynamica
I earned some money today, spending time behind my planer, but making non surfboard related doug fir shavings.
And I had a blast doing it. Especially when I installed the new blades
I was thinking about this thread when making those shavings, cross stepping up 12 foot lengths of Fir I just passed through my tablesaw trying to adjust planer depth where needed to get out the deeper saw blade marks.
I re-realized how much skill a true shaper needs to actually evenly change the rocker on the blank they are working on. I have mowed some foam long ago, and the desire to do it again is returning.
I’m making some floor trim. I told the homeowners I could likely buy it premade and finish it and install it for cheaper than what they are paying me to fabricate it from raw Home Depot select 2x4’s.
But they say they want the trim to look like the other trim I made for them in another part of the house cause it looks so “freaking good”.
Good people to work for. They appreciate craftsmanship and will pay extra for it.
Hey Ray,
It’s funny.
Oceanside has no less than 12 CNC machines.
More surfboards built here per capita than any other place I know of.
Every CNC machine shop is sitting on stacks of miss-cuts.
Dust collectors.
Some well known labels only buy these. Cheap.
They all hit me up knowing I do the blank cutting and gluing thing. Sometimes I cant resist. Dr. Frankenstein needs donors from somewhere. And I have no Igor.
Wrong rockers. Off center cuts. Some are so bad I can see the issues from across the room.
One of the beauties of my business is I do airbrush graphics for many other labels.
Knowing they utilize the machine, I like to look them over now and again.
Sometimes quality is shocking.
Still visible grooves.
Rails that are waaaay off.
Twisted.
And on and on.
“I think a good question would be, who can still make boards if there were no surfboard blanks available? If all you could get was block foam or lumber? I know there’s a bunch out there who can build a beautiful board from wood they harvest and mill themselves. Others have dabbled in the EPS/XPS block foam world. I’ve been making boards from block foam and sometimes wood. Cutting through a PU blank with a power planer is so much easier. If the blank industry and foam in general went away, only a very select few would still be making boards, probably a lot more agave boards would be seen.”
Boy if that happened, a lot of people would be out of business overnight**.**
Not me.
I love making wood boards.
I grow my own.
Boy, I would have nearly no competition.
To those who claim they do the process without electricity (shaping lights and sanders too), put up or shut up…Consider this a challenge…I can hear the excuses already…